10.13.08

The English-speaking press appears not to have caught this one yet, so we publicise a quick headsup on a wonderful development from Sweden. Here is the report in Swedish and — using automated translation — in English. The gist of it is that a parliamentary representative from the far right is proposing to require the use of Free/open source software (FOSS) in the public sector. This is similar to things which have happened in other neighbouring nations, including the United Kingdom (Tories promote FOSS).

As readers may recall, a year ago Microsoft was caughtbribing for OOXML support in Sweden. The vote got invalidated as a result and this said a lot about Microsoft’s fear of change and repellent reaction to competition.

The criminal enterprise known as Microsoft finds itself embarrassingly exposed in the courtroom, for the IRS belatedly (decades too late) targets the company in an effort to tackle massive tax evasions

A look at some of last week's patent news, with imperative responses that criticise corporate exploitation of patents for protectionism (excluding and/or driving away the competition using legal threats)

Vista 10 to bring new ways for spies (and other crackers) to remotely access people's computers and remotely modify the binary files on them (via Windows Update, which for most people cannot be disabled)